Thursday

this may be a bit indulgent, but with 2011 approaching, compiling a year-end list of favorite posts appealed to me. i've enjoying reflecting back on the moments in time cataloged in this space, and if you are a blogger, i hope you'll link some favorites from your own blog that we may have missed the first time around.

Wednesday

we celebrated a wonderful christmas at my parents. a snowstorm postponed one sister's flight and kept us all a little housebound, but it was fun to lay low, eat, play, and laugh together. my kids relishedattention from their grandparents, aunts, and uncle, and we got to spend a rare afternoon all together with my grandma, too. james even slept reasonably well--a christmas miracle!

at some point i'll upload pictures, but tonight, it's nice to just appreciate our beautiful christmas tree (that i'm in no hurry to take down) and the quiet.

we opened the stockings that didn't get filled before we left and gave the kids one last gift--the (only) one from us and something we were so excited to share. we scooped up a train table on craiglist and got some wooden trains and tracks. i know we're going to enjoy them playing there together for a long time. between the christmas tree and the train table, it really looks like a family lives here:)

we worshiped at my parent's church christmas eve. it was good to see familiar faces and enjoy the pageant and dance. as we sang together, i was struck by what this carol revealed about the purpose of the manger-born babe:

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

i looked up the lyrics and found there are alternate lines sung after:

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

amazing, huh? always the cross visible from the stable.

how did your family celebrate? any fun or poignant traditions? is christmas over in your mind, or do you keep things going through epiphany? i hope that your celebrations were warm, wonderful, and worshipful.

like her daddy, dylan loves all things winter. she gets exceedingly amped about icicles, and she was finally able to get out and play with jim the other night, in her new-to-us snowsuit. let's snow throwballs! she said. snow throwballs, indeed.

melt!

james has been sleeping like junk for about three months. last night he was up four times. at almost fourteen months, he's is not an infant anymore, and i am so tired of being tired. must. get. offline. and. in. bed.

what about you? any christmas crafting, snowventures, general merriment? (*salutes* General Merriment!) tell me a story.

Saturday

growing up, our church observed advent like lent, as a somber and penitential season. we did not sing christmas carols at church at all until christmas eve.

that makes it sound like some kind of ultra-strict, repressive faith community--which it wasn't. i didn't have to boycott prom or forgo pants or anything, but there was no congregational merriment to be had until december twenty-fourth on the dot.

i hated it. all i wanted to do was sing "joy to the world" and instead we were stuck singing dirge-like advent carols. of course, it didn't help that stores start piping in christmas music the day after halloween, so by the time christmas rolled around, i was sick to death of all the jessica simpson-style "holiday music" before i'd ever had the chance to sing true christmas carols to their intended Recipient.

"people look east" and "lo, how a rose ere blooming" were the two chief offenders, and they became something of a family joke. the songs were played in that choppy, too-slow style that is impossible to sing along to, so when the pianist would strike the plaintive chords, my sister and i would dissolve into fits of giggles.

our church managed to butcher "o come, o come emmanuel," too. we were allowed to sing that one because it was considered an advent hymn rather than a christmas carol, but i don't remember ever really singing the (powerful) verses. instead, we all held hands and sung the brief refrain at the close of each pre-christmas service.

teenage me thought that was especially lame.

these advent hymns left me with a bad taste. i know now that the goal was to emphasize the waiting and anticipation of the advent of Christ's coming, but to me, they were fun-squelching and old-fashioned. i never paid attention to the words until much more recently, and since then i've had a change of heart.

the verses that once fueled my teenage indignation i now count among my most cherished.

prophesy. longing. poetry and promise. rich, beautiful imagery. the hope and scope of the gospel in a few stanzas.

the very essence of christmas.

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming,
From tender stem hath sprung!
From Jesse’s lineage coming,
As men of old have sung.

It came, a floweret bright,
Amid the cold of winter
When half spent was the night

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind
With Mary we behold it,
The Virgin mother kind

To show God's love aright,
She bore to us a Savior
When half spent was the night...

---advent is a time of waiting. we wait for christmas, like mary, waiting to give birth to the child of promise. like anna and simeon, israel's faithful remnant waiting for redemption. like the wise men, foreigners waiting to worship.

we wait, too: not for a baby in the manger, but for the time when Christ will come again and make all things right. when he will stamp out darkness once and for all.

until then, we live in the tension. the now and not-yet.

so we watch. and we wait. and we remind one another of the Truth--that Jesus is stronger than the darkness of this world, that his victory was ensured at the cross, and the days of death and suffering are numbered.

Wednesday

i tried bangs again. it's a risky maneuver, as they've gone wrong so many times i don't know why i keep bothering.

except i do, because they are so stinkin' cute when done right.

done right by others, i mean. i've experienced widely (and wildly) unfortunate results over the years at salons and home, so i almost never wear bangs. i cut them, hate them, and let them grow out until the whim strikes again, which it always does. i am ever the hair-optimist.

Wednesday

advent has begun, our tree is up (but only partly decorated), and we woke up this morning to snow. i'm not such a fan of the cold, but jim couldn't be happier. when i told him it was snowing, he audibly gasped.

"it is 33 and RAINING in pittsburgh!" and he nearly skipped out the door to feed the chickens in a flurry of winter white.

we are still recovering from the twelve hour marathon car ride [also known as the festival of sickness and tears] that brought us back from an otherwise wonderful thanksgiving in tennessee with jim's family. the kiddos are a bit under the weather, but today is definitely a good day to cuddle up and lay low.